The brain, what scientists don't know about it

[thedoc]

Originally Posted by MonCapitan2002

That was one impressive article. I do hope that those scans help doctors treat mental illnesses.

But who decides what is illness and what is normal, normal is determined by a popularity contest, what most people believe is normal is what is accepted as normal, but what if the majority is wrong? Most people at one time believed the Earth was flat and that the Sun revolved around the Earth. Was that the way it was because most people believed it?

[Ari]

Since this only maps white matter, we're looking at illnesses that involve damage or degeneration of white matter 'cabling' which is certainly a mental illness.

Better scans will also bring out a much more solid understanding of mental illness. Since many illnesses appear to be traceable to certain physical changes and issues we will eventually have a solid way to test mental illness and escape the catch all 'weird' insane asylums have used in the past to lock up people outside of the norm.

[MonCapitan2002]

Originally Posted by Ari

All of these scans have been extremely promising for so many things. Previous partial high res scans have shown that where different groups of Axon bundles have to cross each other they often do so at 90° angles so that when they do maintenance and repairs it's much harder to cross wires. Which should make going in and physically fixing the brains wiring much easier.

The organization of the wiring also suggests brain to computer interfaces and eventually full blown cyberpunk jacking in to the net will be possible.

Yeah. No thanks on brain to computer interfaces for me. I would rather avoid becoming vulnerable to hackers. I'll be passing on cyberpunk jacking myself. If I suffered an illness that cut my mind off the outside world and had the choice between jacking into a mind/machine interface or death, I would prefer death.

Still, for others without this hang up, this greater understanding opens up many opportunities.